Hi.

Guangdong Province: Guangzhou

In late June, I travelled to southern China to the province of Guangdong. Guangdong is the part of China that westerners refer to Canton.

I accompanied 10 students with their parents to a theme park called Chime Long. The Chime Long theme park is really three parks in one. It is one part water park, one part roller coaster amusement park, and one part animal safari park.

All in all, the trip was really enjoyable. I used the trip as an opportunity to take photos. On one hand, I was thinking about documenting the trip. The little interactions and a visual itinerary of out activities. But that style seems more suited for an iPhone and for instant uploading, not for a heavy DSLR. I much more prefer capturing what I felt were beautiful moments. I managed to fill up a 4G CF card by taking 1255 photos. When I finally uploaded them to Abobe Lightroom, I was able to delete 500 of the shots because of repeated images during a burst of shots, exposure & shutter speed problems, or boring shots. (I'm not proud of that.) I was left with 750 photos that I like. (I'm proud of that). Of those, I uploaded 102 of those shots to the social media site, QQ, to share with the families and on-line community from the training center.

Below you will find batches of photos from various events from that five day trip. (as well as links to other parts of the trip here and here)

The day was incredibly hot and before mid-day we all took a rest under some trees by a little playground. Children really don't need complicated or expensive activities when they travel. They appreciate simple things, like playgrounds. Likewise, parents don't need complicated things either. They need time to themselves along with the peace of mind that their kids are busily enjoying themselves in something and needn't be attended to.

This pull cart was set on miniature railroad tracks.

Sometimes parents like to be silly too. After getting to know some of the parents better, it is easier to understand where the children's personalities come from.

Anyone who has toured in China's southwest will recognize this man paddling a small boat with birds obediently sitting on the bow. He is a fisherman and uses the Cormorant birds to catch the fish. The birds are fitted with collars which make it impossible for for birds to swallow the fish. Thus, when they return to the boat, the fisherman can take the fish from the bird in exchange for an edible reward for their trouble..

Local resources were used to decorate their homes as well as provide some level of insulation from the weather. Being by the sea, oyster shells are in abundance.

Caramel lollipops shaped as the animals from the Chinese zodiac. Mind = Blown.